Wellness Tips We Learnt From 9 Weeks Quarantine In China
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Wellness Tips We Learnt From 9 Weeks Quarantine In China
These truly are unprecedented times that we’re living in right now and we’re globally facing a whole range of emotions and reactions to current updates. There really is no right or wrong way to react in this situation, everyone just has to do what they feel, look after themselves and look after others as much as possible. We’ve seen communities come together like never before and a whole rollercoaster of feelings across the spectrum. Of course, we know the safest way to help right now is to stay home, keep distances and religiously wash our hands, but what about our mental, emotional, spiritual, financial wellbeing and everything in-between?
A little bit of context for what it’s been like for us here in China- you may already know that the Chinese New Year holiday was on the 25th January, and that that was the last time we went to work. All shops (except for major supermarkets) and businesses remained closed and everyone was in lockdown until the 16th February when slowly slowly a few things started to open back up again, with everything being largely running as normal by the beginning of March.
The schools remained closed up until the 9th April at least when high schools are scheduled to re-open first. We still have to wear masks in public and get our temperature taken everywhere we go and sometimes write our phone numbers down and sign it before entering places too. Basically no financial aid has been given (except the minimum wage equivalent of about £150 per month) and whatever you can negotiate with your individual employer. If you leave the parameters of the city, you need to fully quarantine in a designated hotel for 2 weeks, flights are largely running again domestically but this is continuously changing.
We’ve been in self-isolation in our flat for 9 weeks now (and counting) and although we are self-professed introverts, these certainly aren’t normal circumstances, so below are the tips and tricks we’ve learnt along the way to help keep us productive, our minds sane, our hearts secure, stay informed and make decisions to help survive this lockdown as smoothly as we possibly can, we hope they can be of some service to you too.
Consume the news mindfully
This has been absolutely imperative to our mental and emotional wellbeing. We simply keep updated twice a day with the facts, figures and statistics on websites such as worldwometers.info and a local Chinese app (we recommend finding one for your specific area). Following along with the WHO and CDC updates are also, of course, necessary. We cannot emphasise enough how much of a lifesaver this has been for our minds. We were here when the outbreak first happened and it was an unknown virus, in a country that isn’t our own, on the other side of the world to our friends and family, our government was calling for immediate repatriation, international flights were being cancelled and the largest quarantine in world history was being implemented.
If we had read the news we would have absolutely had a nervous breakdown. A couple of times when we did go down the news rabbit hole, both of us resulted in extreme panicking - luckily this happened one at a time so we could each calm the other down. There are a couple of interesting, impartial, level-headed articles from trusted news sites that we will occasionally read from time to time to stay informed on emerging developments, but other than that we try to stick to the simple facts as much as possible.
2. Isolated but not alone - stay connected
For us this was a bit tricky because, again, we were originally unique in this experience so a lot of contact was spent reassuring people that the situation was under control for us. But for those of you going into self-isolation now or recently, it’s important to reinforce those connections. Zoom, Houseparty, WhatsApp and FaceTime are all great for this. If you don’t have anyone you’re close to (or even if you do!), and feel the need, make sure to reach out to organisations such as Mind if your mental health begins deteriorating dangerously. If you’re lucky enough to be social distancing with just your parter, you’ll likely get on fine, but if you are with housemates or even family, you may need to work on setting healthy boundaries in place as well.
Fostering animals if you can right now is an excellent way to give back due to the current shortage of volunteers, pets can uplift you enormously and help give you some sense of control if this is something you struggle with. Plus, who doesn’t want to cuddle a puppy all day long?!
If available to you, you can donate in whatever way you can, even if that’s just sharing pages on social media etc., to help you feel more connected, in control, and a part of the (positive) solution. We like to donate to hospitals that have been hardest hit in our country and animal shelters. Your time is a precious asset that you can give too, maybe you can help the elderly in your building/neighbourhood with their shopping (from a safe distance)? Anything that speaks to you is great way to go.
3. Stick to a routine
This one is important not only for your mental stability but especially if you still have to work from home! Get dressed if it makes you feel better or think this could help you be more productive if working from home (we personally like to stay in our fave pyjamas/loungewear most days). To help keep you accountable in the WFH department, creating routines that form habits are highly effective, as are setting realistic goals to work towards and rewarding yourself adequately!
For example, our daily routine might look roughly something like this:
6-7AM Wake up (we do this naturally)
7-9AM Morning routine, which you can read about here
9AM-12:30 Work on various projects + a coffee break
12:30-1:30PM (more or less) Lunch
1:30-5PM Work on various projects
5-6PM Workout/yoga and a brief walk outside if the weather is nice (check if allowed in your area)
6-7:30PM Cooking, eating dinner, and washing up
7:30-9PM Updating our Instagram account + reading
9PM Our nighttime routine, which you can read about here
In this regard, it may also beneficial to learn how to properly disconnect, especially if you’re self-employed- make sure to keep sticking to your days off!
Of course, if you’re not working from home or don’t want a fixed schedule, your day will be a lot more flexible and varied. However, we would still strongly recommend sticking to a morning and nighttime routine for good sleep hygiene and optimum energy levels at least, and then picking one thing you’d like to work towards or do during this time to help keep you motivated. The days and weeks really do start to blend into one otherwise. You may also decide that you want to rest, reset and simply take care of yourself first until you feel ready enough to begin taking on something new, or not at all. Choose what to do with this time by what will ultimately work best for you in the long-run.
4. Use social media intentionally
We follow loads of inspirational accounts that uplift us so much, we feel like we’re constantly learning new things about ourselves and the world around us daily.
This is also a great time to do a social media sweep- go through and unfollow any accounts that don’t “spark joy” or that conjure up negative feelings such as jealousy, fear etc. Along this theme, there might be some accounts that you normally love, or simply friends and family, whose posts give you anxiety right now so it may be best to mute them for a while or take a break from social media altogether if this solution doesn’t help the situation. We would recommend setting social media parameters with your time anyway because it’s really easy to get sucked in to an online blackhole and that’s just not good for anybody’s eyesight or wellbeing.
5. Consider learning something new/starting a project
Having something to work towards is a great tactic. Many of us are safe at home and will never get this kind of time again. Meditation, journalling, learning an instrument/language, cooking, handstands, photography, or doing something hands-on such as pottery, are all excellent ways to ground yourself, have fun, be present and mindful, and, of course, learn a new skill! Plus, there’s SO many great free courses available now too. Some of our favourites are Mindbodygreen’s reiki class, Yale’s science of wellbeing on Coursera, and yogi Sjana Elise’s online 10 day wellness retreat.
Starting a project is a great use of this time, can help distract you, give you focus and purpose, and also potentially expand your revenue streams in the future! For example, as our blog was predominantly travel-based, we have started focussing on expanding our lifestyle aspect of it now too. We also finally signed up to Skillshare and have been working our way through specific courses to brush up our skills in photography, social media, SEO and more. And Sam has decided that he’s going to learn how to handstand by the time we come out of here and practice his juggling every day haha.
6. Move regularly
Keeping up some form of exercise regularly is essential to not only your physical fitness but your mental stamina too. Yoga and dancing have the added emotional and spiritual benefits, which may be exactly what you need in these times. Along with our daily morning yoga, we signed up to Alo Moves for our evening workout as well and absolutely love it! They have such a wide variety of teachers, styles, levels and intensities available, it’s something we really look forward to doing now and love how they’ve developed not only our yoga practice but also our calmness too.
You’ll no doubt have seen all the fitness challenges circulating social media and these are great options as well! Find one that resonates with you and try to stick with it as much as possible. Even just a daily walk will do wonders for your wellbeing. We definitely notice the difference when we’ve been cooped up for one day too long (again, check with your local regulations whether any outside time is allowed).
7. Try to get your vitamin D and nature fix
Vitamin D is an essential almost hormone-like vitamin that is incredibly important for regulating our immunity, sleep patterns and overall wellbeing. Nature (or vitamin N as it’s been called) is also an aspect of our lives that is so so important that we often overlook. If you’re lucky enough to have a garden during these times then this will be easy for you, if not, like us, you’ll have to try a little bit harder to meet safety requirements and still get your nature fix in.
For us (now that restrictions have lifted a bit), this looks like trying to make a weekly trip to a secluded part of the beach or hike and sitting out on the balcony whenever the sun is shining. Spending time in nature is not only great, it also lowers blood pressure and cortisol levels, as well as helping us to find that centre of stillness and presence that we so desperately need in these times.
8. Eat well to keep your mood and immune system up
Now that we have plenty of time at home there’s really not many excuses not to cook delicious meals from scratch! Make sure to load up on all your fruit, veggies, healthy fats, protein and carbs, and liquids. It’s imperative to keep our immune systems strong right now too, you can read the post we wrote about how we do that throughout the year here. Plus, cooking or baking are not only yummy but can also be therapeutic too. If you’ve always wanted to try something out, now’s your chance. So far we’ve only experimented with bread but we still have a whole list of inspiring recipes we want to get through, yum!
9. Prepare but don’t panic
Remember, supermarkets will ALWAYS stay open. Stock up for what you need for a week so you can limit your trips and then carry on as normal (this is something we do anyway because we don’t like food shopping haha). Arrange your finances accordingly for the future where necessary but don’t go overboard, consider where you can downsize or expand/differentiate/outsource or otherwise diversify your income stream before taking out any drastic loans etc if necessary.
Of course it’s easier said than done, but whenever we feel a fresh pang of panic, we always go and look up the official statistics and it usually makes us feel much better and we can then make more rational decisions regarding our future. Again, this is where techniques such as meditation and journalling also come massively into play but you can consider exploring other avenues for what works best for you, for example I’ve recently been trying out EFT tapping and reiki and also got into tarot cards which I absolutely ADORE for helping me hone into my innate intuition and help make decisions more clearly whilst grounding me. Read more about my personal gratitude and free-flow journalling practice.
10. Go through that to-do list you never had time for
With all this time on our hands, this is a great opportunity to get things done that you don’t normally have the time for. It’s also a great way to keep you occupied, take your mind off stressful thoughts and give you a sense of accomplishment, as well as making your life easier down the line! Organising your taxes, sorting out your cupboards, going through some kind of admin task, basically anything that you’ve had your eye on for a while but always put off- blast some music and get to it!
In the music department, apart from our normal type of music, we’ve been loving a bit of Einaudi, nature sounds and binaural beats to help soothe us. We’re also a bit obsessed with podcasts and listen to them almost every day! Our faves at the moment are School Of Greatness, Happy Place, Under The Skin by Russell Brand and Mindbodygreen.
11. Adopt a healthy mindset
What helped for us was continually reminding ourselves that first and foremost we are alive, healthy and safe right now in this very second, as are our loved ones. Secondly, it has been beneficial to us to continually remember that despite the financial hardship we have faced (this came straight after my 2 months off work because of my broken foot!) we are still incredibly privileged to have a warm home to shelter in, food to eat, and each other.
Don’t hold ANY expectations for what you should do or how you should feel right now. This is an incredibly difficult period we are all going through and there is no correct way to behave. You will likely go through a range of emotions and that’s great. Feel through and honour everything, it’s all there to send us a message. Be kind through it all, to yourself and to others, and we will get through this. Know that this too shall pass.
Practicing daily gratitude is also incredibly important for our emotional wellbeing, trying to appreciate this time and how, all things considered, we are very lucky. If you are reading this post, you most likely have access to a smartphone and/or computer, which means you have a house you can pay the utility bills for- this makes you richer than at least 92% of the planet! When unforeseen hardships such as this one happen, it’s easy to get downtrodden. Lots of us have had our salaries slashed, had to cancel numerous trips, events and collaborations already lined up etc but what keeps us happy is reminding ourselves how despite all of this we are truly fortunate to still be here, have each other, and have had these opportunities in the first place.
We will come out of this and we can choose how we want this time to have passed for us. There is a saying in the East that the West says “panic, panic everything is out of control!”, whereas in the Buddhist world they say “relax, everything is out of control”. At the end of the day, we can’t control what happens in the world, we can only control our reaction to it. Of course, this is a constant work in progress, and a couple of things that have helped us stay positive is writing a weekly gratitude journal, meditation and Eckhart Tolle’s book “A New Earth”, among many others.
The future is unknown and always has been, so how can we use this time to turn inward, spend some time getting to know ourselves, re-learning what we thought we knew, and getting comfortable with change? The only constant in life, after all, is change. Of course, we don’t know how the situation will develop or where it will lead us, so the only thing we can do is learn what tips and tricks we can use to face adversity going forward and works best for our personal mental wellbeing.
12. Self-care, self-care, self-care
This one is mega important right now more so than ever, at no other time has taking care of yourself, whatever that may look like for you, been so essential. Go with the flow and tune into yourself- do you feel a bit deflated and want to Netflix and chill all day? Go for it. Do you feel like playing dress-up before doing a face mask, having a bath, drinking a glass of wine and eating all the chocolate? Then this is a must. Whatever you feel like doing is exactly what you should be doing.
If you want to cry all day then that’s a signal you’ve got stuff to let out! If you feel super organised and are on a productivity roll then ride that wave. Don’t feel guilty about anything, everyone is going through things to varying degrees in varying timeframes and everything is valid. For us, self-care means all of the above haha as well as the other points mentioned before in the post. Above all, be kind. Be kind to yourself and others and we will come out of this better than we entered it. After all, this will end one day- what state do you personally want to be in when that happens? It might help to make some plans for the future or set some personal goals you’d like to achieve or work towards. Being gentle with yourself and those around you will help not make this time harder than it has to be.
If you would like to try and make your own beauty products for your self-care routine, I have a post about the clean cosmetics I make here.
So there you have our 12 top wellness tips we learnt from our 9+ weeks in quarantine in China. We really hope they can be of some use to you, your motivation and sense of connection, and that you’re doing as well as can be expected in these times. Overall, it’s amazing what you can get used to and what becomes your new normal as you find various ways to adapt to current situations. We’d love to know what else you do so we can add it to our list and share it with others!
Where in the world are you right now and how are you dealing with this situation? Let’s chat in the comments section below :) Or, feel free to ask us any questions about it!
If you’re interested in other stress management techniques, check out our post on 7 Holistic Ways To Ease Anxiety At Home.
